


How to Respond?

by Baozhale



Series: Tamora Pierce BINGO 2013 [9]
Category: Emelan - Tamora Pierce, PIERCE Tamora - Works
Genre: Gen, Politics, references to death
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-09-26
Updated: 2013-09-26
Packaged: 2017-12-27 15:58:21
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 551
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/980842
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Baozhale/pseuds/Baozhale
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>We're inside people's heads, reacting to the decision to give the Yanjingyi ambassador the cursed fabric. Set during The Will of the Empress.<br/>Colorful prompt for BINGO.</p>
            </blockquote>





	How to Respond?

Sandry almost felt bad for the Yanjingyi ambassador. He seemed genuinely happy to be given the exquisitely colorful (but cursed) fabric of his homeland from the empress, which meant one of two things.

  1. He was a better actor than Sandry thought possible. When she brought up that possibility, Briar had pointed out that they were _really_ good actors when he was there last.

  2. He didn't know the fabric was cursed. _This_ was the possibility that led Sandry to almost feel bad. Almost. It was still hard to feel bad for someone who chose to work diplomacy for such a country, and the ambassador _couldn't_ be ignorant of the fact that his country was willing to be so underhanded.




 

Briar didn't feel bad for the ambassador _at all_. As far as Briar was concerned, the man knew (or suspected) that the fabric was cursed. The man would also know what it was meant for: the slow, poisonous death of the Empress. That's how politics worked. Everyone _knew_ that was how politics worked, even if they preferred to tell themselves pretty lies.

Now, the ambassador's wife? The ambassador's children? Briar could and did feel bad for them. While his wife may have chosen to marry the man, the time she would have had to decide in was too short to know he could do such things. Besides, she may not have chosen to marry him- Briar reminded himself that arranged marriages were common enough in Yanjing, especially among the upper classes. And his children? No more to blame for having the ambassador for a father than he was for never having known who his father was, or Sandry for being the child of flighty nobles. They didn't deserve the slow, poisonous loss of father and husband. They also didn't deserve the death passed on to them, should they not realize the source of his death and keep it for memory (or value, or even to avoid causing insult.) And they wouldn't realize: it was designed to kill in ways no one would notice.

 

Daja wasn't entirely sure what to think. On one hand, ambassadors theoretically worked for their country by choice. At the least, entering onto a path that could lead to becoming an ambassador was done by choice. On the other, she knew that people could start on paths which led to horrible things and then find that they couldn't leave with their lives intact once they reached the point of _knowing_ the terrible things they would be expected to do. The paths often looked pretty enough, to start.

 

Tris was confused. She could see that there was magic in the fabric. She could see that it didn't want to be seen. She did not look closely enough to know what it would do until Sandry eventually explained. Even then, giving the fabric to the ambassador didn't entirely make sense, and current politics was the one thing she didn't care to learn.

 

Empress Berenene ignored the flicker of feeling as she passed on the order that the Yanjingyi ambassador receive the gifted fabric. She was used to ignoring such flickers of feeling, and she now barely noticed their existence. She could not have told you it was remorse for causing death she swallowed, and she would have laughed had you suggested it.


End file.
